Rantings of A Grinch

Just got back from Robinson's Place. My groupmate and I had to buy some goodies for our speaker tomorrow. After much considerations, we ended purchasing a basketful of goodies, which I carried all the way to the jeepney stop. It was only until then did I realize how exhausted I was - feel like fainting any moment. The weight of the basket was heavy so my arms were aching really badly - but trying hard to act like the self sufficient heroine that I am, did not say a word to my groupmate even when she concernly asked me if I needed help. Pride - my favorite sin.

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I can hear Eminem songs again. On the way to RP, the FX we were riding on had an Eminem tape playing. While the white rapper's curses blasted on the speakers, I was thinking why my obsession to his songs diminished. I guess after two years of memorizing his words and lyrics, I finally realized and confirmed to myself how shallow and childish they are.

Americans are really shallow according to my friend, but I beg to differ, the fact is, everybody tends to become shallow and immature. Although a person may act mature, there are also other aspects in his personality which he still needs to develop. I don't believe anybody has actually achieved absolute perfection, but enlightened people (those who managed to detach themselves from people, things and emotions) are quite contented and live more meaningful lives compared to their wildly-driven tycoon counterparts. W!

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Christmas season is already starting and works of "altruism" is in the air. Personally, I don't believe in the spirit of altruism and in fact do not practice such a thing. People helping others? Heck, its more of a basic freedom rather than a work of virtue the way I see it. Going to orphanages and visiting the poor oldies, extending your help in Gawad Kalinga - but complain like shit when you get home because one's too damn tired, one's too like this and like that - now that's the spirit of altruism. As I've commented to my friend, why keep telling yourself you like to be altruistic and helpful, when after the experience, you end up complaining about things you can't have. You did not get the lesson of helping the needy at all.

In fact, why be so self-possessed with personal wants and needs and power then say I am socio-civic participant. I mean, why be mean to people, snapping at them and bossing them around then say I am all heart. (Disclaimer - She's not that mean, I am just saying this to exaggerate the points) It's another mask that we fool ourselves in. I don't think she got what I was trying to point out though.

I am the Grinch, but not a complete Scrooge. I do hate the Christmas season, with all the traffic jams conjesting the metro, all those jolly overused Holiday jingles tickling your ears until they bleed of overexposure, all the consumerism that is going on here and there.

I hate the Christmas season because it is the time of hypocrisy, when people act all lovey-dovey and concerned when in fact they don't really care or have another agenda in mind. It's the time when people give you things before you realize that they are actually expecting something in return (take for instance, giving gifts to politicians).

Christmas is the time when we have to spend spend spend because we are expected to, and people end up broke and complaining but blame it on the season because they have to spend. Mahirap na ang Pilipinas, but wait.. check out the stampede thats thrashing around Divisoria, Greenhills and all the major shopping sites.

Christmas is the time of the year when your family could be together but is still individualized with their own concerns - the computer, the cellphone, the television. It's a time when you prepare damn Christmas dinners when people aren't exactly hungry but would have to wake up in the middle of the night to get a barbeque stick or two and go back to sleep, just for tradition's sake.

Christmas is the time when people open up their gifts and say, these are the gifts I plan to recycle, these are the ones I am going to keep and these are simply distasteful and should be thrown away in the trash can. Its the time when people compare the quantity of gifts they receive, the total prices of the presents, etc.

My Christmas is so consumer-oriented that I don't believe in Christmas anymore. Christmas is not a time of love - its just a facade, its the time when you have reason to go to shopping sprees and spend like crazy. Its a season of giving, but more importantly - of business.